in Astronomy, a great circle of the sphere, supposed to be drawn through the middle of the zodiac, making an angle with the equinoctial of about ECT 23° 30', which is the sun's greatest declination; or, more strictly speaking, it is that path or way among the fixed stars, that the earth appears to describe to an eye placed in the sun. See ASTRONOMY Index.

Some call it via solis, "the way of the sun;" because the sun in his apparent annual motion never deviates from it, as all the other planets do more or less.

in Geography, a great circle on the terrestrial globe, not only answering to, but falling within, the plane of the celestial ecliptic. See GEOGRAPHY.